Police chief defends officers who arrested 12-year-old boy over toy pellet gun

A POLICE commander has defended his officers after it emerged they had arrested a 12-year-old boy playing with a toy gun, believing it to be real.

A team of officers with sniffer dogs stormed the home of Kai Agyepong in Camden, north London, on the evening of July 17 after a call from a member of the public claiming to have seen a black male holding a firearm.

In reality, it was a BB pellet gun that had been fitted with a blue slider to distinguish it from the real thing.

Kai’s mother Alice criticised the Met Police, saying her family felt “utterly violated” by the incident. Ms Agyepong, who also has two daughters living at home aged 16 and 23, said: “In my mind there was no question they were going to shoot us.

“Their guns were drawn in such a way they were aiming their rifles at me and my kids.”

She said the Met had thrown “every single resource except a helicopter” at the incident, adding that in addition to the armed officers and dog unit, there were two vans of ordinary PCs and an ambulance.

Even after being shown the BB gun, the police still conducted a full search of the property lasting more than an hour.

Ms Agyepong said her son had “undoubtedly” been racially profiled.

She said the Met had explained the incident by saying senior gang members often leave knives and firearms with younger boys in the hope that they will be less likely to be discovered.

Commander Kyle Gordon, the Met’s lead for firearms, said: “There have been a number of well-publicised shootings in London in recent months where members of the public have been injured.

“As the public would rightly expect, we take every report of a firearm seriously in order to protect our communities.

“Officers attending reports such as this must treat them as genuine until they can verify whether or not an actual firearm is present.”